Angel of Mine (2019) Review!

Synopsis – A woman grieving over the death of her daughter loses grip of reality when she begins to think her girl may still be alive.

My Take – For a parent there can be nothing worse than losing a child. The grief is so powerful, that it instantly devastates any sort of happy emotion left inside. While the world expects you to move on, only a parent can understand how impossibly challenging it actually is. Here, in this adaption of the 2008 French film, L’Empreinte de L’ange, director Kim Farrant showcases how a grieving mother’s efforts to move on slowly turns into an uncomfortable obsession.

Flying mostly under the radar since its announcement, this Australian production initially drew my attention with the presence of its strong cast, but with the rumors of it being based partially on a true story, I just had to dive into the psychology of the lead character. The good news is that, the film, despite being a remake manages to stands on its own as a much more intense version.

While the English version (yes, I saw the French film first) is much further into thriller territory than the original, building up an almost unbearable tension, it also manages to be a thought provoking and a surprising well-acted piece of entertainment, despite the presence of some genre clichés.

The story follows Lizzie (Noomi Rapace), a cosmetics sales assistant, who is just a few steps away from hitting rock bottom. Still grieving the loss of her baby daughter, who died in a hospital fire seven years ago, Lizzie has lost the basic the meaning of living her life. Since then, she’s become estranged from her husband, Mike (Luke Evans), and neglects her young son Thomas (Finn Little) to the point that Mike is demanding full custody.

All the while popping pills to glue her brittle act together, with sketchy results. On one fateful afternoon, Lizzie goes to the home of Claire (Yvonne Strahovski) to pick up her Thomas who was attending Claire’s son, birthday party. While at the party, Lizzie spots her younger daughter, Lola (Annika Whiteley) and Lizzie just can’t take her eyes off her.

It appears that Lola shares a striking resemblance to the baby for whom she still grieves, as a result, Lizzie’s already frayed restraints begin to snap. Firmly convinced that a mother always knows her own child no matter how much time has passed, Lizzie takes smartphone photos, watches the little girl through her windows, and invades the child’s home under the pretense of feigning an interest in buying her parents’ house that is until Claire becomes incredibly suspicious of Lizzie.

This deranged game plan is so doomed that it’s sole guilty pleasure. There are passages of thriller and stalker cinema, teases of a low grade film-making, but it truly connects when it examines the psychological extent of the lead character’s pain and her gradually unstoppable determination to repair all that was once cruelly ruined.

The film identifies Lizzie’s mental fracture right off. While the details of the event are slowly portioned out in the screenplay, creating a mystery with the character’s backstory, her shredded nerves aren’t hidden from view, as we can see Lizzie barely contain her agitation as she tries to put on a happy face for Thomas, only to endure his criticisms of her poor parent performance.

Here, director Kim Farrant exceeds with small moments of focus, as Lizzie can’t help herself when it comes to being with Lola, sneaking away to ice skate with the child, visit her ballet recital, and take her on a boat ride, immersed in her regenerated caretaker role, which soon gives Claire a case of the creeps.

Also teased is a shot of Lizzie’s dangerous fantasy life, imagining a rescue scenario for Lola, making her the protective parent she always wanted to be. While the screenplay by Luke Davies and David Regal which includes Lizzie going through some extremes like making love to a stranger with insatiable passion is cliché-resistant, there is a great amount of tension throughout and while it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue or backstory, the atmosphere totally draws you in and keeps you interested.

The best part of this is believing you have it all figured out then being smacked with something you couldn’t, or at least I couldn’t, see coming. The understated direction by Kim Farrant leads you into the element of surprise you do not anticipate as the film detours into a shock ending that will leave you wide-eyed with awe.

The plot twist turns the tables on everyone and charges the narrative with the jolt of an electric shock treatment, but everyone involved miraculously manages to make the elements believable without piling on a lot of familiar Hollywood melodrama.

Unfortunately, what takes it to the Lifetime range is that the drama and thrills are relatively tame and feels heightened thanks to a dramatic film score. Lizzie’s actions definitely cross the lines of good parenting, but you never get a sense of real danger, like for example, when the way Lizzie brazenly enters the neighbors’ house at night in search of DNA evidence is not entirely convincing.

Although I found the consequences of Lizzie’s action compelling when they began to affect those close to her, i.e., her parents, ex-husband, and son.

Most interesting is Noomi Rapace’s commitment to the part. Rapace is certainly chewing the scenery in her role, and delivers a full-body unraveling, and the screenplay’s understanding of Lizzie’s depth of mourning, missing everything she was before she lost her baby. Even though her turn may not be particularly subtle or nuanced, it is fun to watch.

Yvonne Strahovski, as the bewildered and suspicious mother of the child Lizzie is stalking, is a wonderful counterpart to Rapace, whose expressive face combines elements of apprehension, determination, conviction and panic. Had the film been told from that character’s perspective, Strahovski’s performance could have made the film all the more compelling.

Unfortunately in supporting roles, Richard Roxburgh and Luke Evans really don’t have much to do. On the whole, ‘Angel of Mine’ is an above average thriller, which melds its nuanced performances and intelligent script, very interestingly.